Tom Mackay

Runs Lento Agency from wherever. Sports nut. Brand strategy expert. Currently building brands between time zones.

The Weekly Rundown: The psychology of gear acquisition syndrome

The Rundown

Aug 20, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: The psychology of gear acquisition syndrome

Also: what everyone's watching women shrink again is really about, the fonts actually worth licensing this month, and the department store that treated bargain hunting as a condition to be treated.

Tom Mackay

JCPenney diagnosed off-price shopping as a form of self-harm and built a retreat to fix it

Campaigns

Aug 19, 2026

JCPenney diagnosed off-price shopping as a form of self-harm and built a retreat to fix it

Six real shoppers, a clothing cleanse and a trust fall later, the department store makes its case for why cheap and reliable aren't the same purchase.

Tom Mackay

The psychology of gear acquisition syndrome

Opinion

Aug 18, 2026

The psychology of gear acquisition syndrome

Why we buy the gear before we do the thing — and how the best brands designed the ladder we climb.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: Poppi ditched every wellness convention and won

The Rundown

Aug 12, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: Poppi ditched every wellness convention and won

Also: one ballot, one flesh, why your Wi-Fi in Bali beats your office's, and the billboard Netflix trapped a man in for three days — and it worked.

Tom Mackay

Netflix trapped a man in a billboard for three days and it worked

Campaigns

Aug 11, 2026

Netflix trapped a man in a billboard for three days and it worked

A bathrobe, a stack of books and a whiteboard for talking to the traffic below. The film he was up there advertising had already started streaming without him.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How Nolan stayed the only voice in the room

The Rundown

Aug 6, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How Nolan stayed the only voice in the room

Also: why BTS said no to a Grammy category built for them, the yoghurt brand that stopped listing what it left out, and the orthopedic shoe ad set during the zombie apocalypse.

Tom Mackay

Inspiration

Aug 4, 2026

How we created a Greek yoghurt brand so delicious, you’ll forget it’s good for you

Meet iLiyo: a new identity, packaging system and website built around pleasure—not the usual language of health food.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How protein stopped being a nutrient and became a marketing number

The Rundown

Jul 30, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How protein stopped being a nutrient and became a marketing number

Also: purpose is dead and behaviour is the brand, our July list of nice things, and the floor Jamiroquai couldn't afford in 1996.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: The business of nostalgia

The Rundown

Jul 23, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: The business of nostalgia

Also: thirteen years of agencies copying the wrong half of the Oatly carton, what holds a global creative agency together when everything wants to fall apart, and Gap's biggest denim launch of the year being one girl on a bedroom floor.

Tom Mackay

Oatly Playbook: how the back of a carton became the most valuable space in the aisle

Deep Dive

Jul 22, 2026

Oatly Playbook: how the back of a carton became the most valuable space in the aisle

Oatly had no media budget, so it printed the advertising on the box. Everyone remembers the wonky logo. The part that actually worked was the writing, and it's the only half nobody has managed to copy.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: Clip it or forget bout It

The Rundown

Jul 16, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: Clip it or forget bout It

Also: the five-dollar hair tie Haaland turned into the last believable luxury, the lone-genius myth Daft Punk, Björk and Gaga quietly killed, and La Colombe swearing it's the coffee when it obviously isn't.

Tom Mackay

The Rundown

Jul 2, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: Your brand is probably invisible to half your customers right now

Also: the fantasy of the simple life, June's edit of nice things, and the Wild ad brave enough to finish "drier than a nun's..."

Tom Mackay

Opinion

Jul 2, 2026

Your brand is probably invisible to half your customers right now

How AI quietly became the front door to discovery—and why most brands haven't walked through it yet.

Tom Mackay

Wild Deodorant promises to make you drier than a nun’s 🫢

Campaigns

Jul 1, 2026

Wild Deodorant promises to make you drier than a nun’s 🫢

You don't always have to say it. Let the nun do it.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How to find the angle your category is missing

The Rundown

Jun 25, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How to find the angle your category is missing

Also inside: the week Cannes stopped fearing AI, the quiet death of the monoculture, June's fonts worth licensing, and Loewe without its visionary.

Tom Mackay

Don't Disappear: the campaign we built for the GLP-1 generation

Inspiration

Jun 23, 2026

Don't Disappear: the campaign we built for the GLP-1 generation

Somewhere between client projects we asked ourselves what it would look like to build a real campaign from scratch — strategy to screen, zero budget, zero original footage. This is the answer.

Tom Mackay

Jun 18, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How Birkenstock made fashion come to them

Also: the GLP-1 brand the category forgot to make, how LVMH rewrote Formula 1 time from Rolex to TAG Heuer, and Apple finding a better way to talk about privacy.

Tom Mackay

Deep Dive

Jun 18, 2026

Birkenstock Playbook: How to build a brand that fashion has to come to

It took a back injury and two years of my wife's patience to convert me. The brand has been making the same argument for 250 years. Turns out they were right.

Tom Mackay

Inspiration

Jun 15, 2026

We created a brand the GLP-1 category forgot to make

One in eight Americans is on a GLP-1. The brands built around them all made the same error without realising it. This quarter we built the one that didn't. Introducing Verve.

Tom Mackay

The Rundown

Jun 11, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How the 2026 FIFA World Cup became the biggest brand machine in history

Also: the hyperlocal code Sardinia cracked, designing for the user who can't be polite, and Nike tearing up the football rulebook with Rip the Script.

Tom Mackay

Deep Dive

Jun 11, 2026

How the 2026 FIFA World Cup became the biggest brand machine in history

FIFA expanded the tournament, reclaimed the premium, and put a sensor inside the match ball. The brands that understood what was being built stopped asking for space and started holding up the walls.

Tom Mackay

The Rundown

Jun 4, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: The NBA playoffs are a masterclass in brand theatre

Also: why sleep has become another productivity project, the fonts actually worth licensing this month, and how Etsy is sounding human while everyone else is trying to fake it.

Tom Mackay

Deep Dive

Jun 4, 2026

The NBA playoffs are a masterclass in brand theatre

How did the most complained-about sport in America become its greatest entertainment product?

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: Stop treating UGC like an afterthought

The Rundown

May 28, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: Stop treating UGC like an afterthought

Also: the epidemic of sameness hiding inside every brand collab you've seen this year, duck noodles and an unexpected design lesson from Thailand, and Four Seasons making public health content Gen Z actually watches.

Tom Mackay

Your customers are your best marketers. Most brands have no idea.

Deep Dive

May 28, 2026

Your customers are your best marketers. Most brands have no idea.

How the brands pulling ahead stopped missing the content their customers were already making

Tom Mackay

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: The psychology of gear acquisition syndrome

JCPenney diagnosed off-price shopping as a form of self-harm and built a retreat to fix it

The psychology of gear acquisition syndrome

The Weekly Rundown: Poppi ditched every wellness convention and won

Netflix trapped a man in a billboard for three days and it worked

The Weekly Rundown: How Nolan stayed the only voice in the room

How we created a Greek yoghurt brand so delicious, you’ll forget it’s good for you

The Weekly Rundown: How protein stopped being a nutrient and became a marketing number

The Weekly Rundown: The business of nostalgia

Oatly Playbook: how the back of a carton became the most valuable space in the aisle

The Weekly Rundown: Clip it or forget bout It

The Weekly Rundown: Your brand is probably invisible to half your customers right now

Your brand is probably invisible to half your customers right now

Wild Deodorant promises to make you drier than a nun’s 🫢

The Weekly Rundown: How to find the angle your category is missing

Don't Disappear: the campaign we built for the GLP-1 generation

The Weekly Rundown: How Birkenstock made fashion come to them

Birkenstock Playbook: How to build a brand that fashion has to come to

We created a brand the GLP-1 category forgot to make

The Weekly Rundown: How the 2026 FIFA World Cup became the biggest brand machine in history

How the 2026 FIFA World Cup became the biggest brand machine in history

The Weekly Rundown: The NBA playoffs are a masterclass in brand theatre

The NBA playoffs are a masterclass in brand theatre

The Weekly Rundown: Stop treating UGC like an afterthought

Your customers are your best marketers. Most brands have no idea.

Quick Links

Info